Preparing for Kindergarten!

The next several months will be spent slowly preparing for kindergarten! With Brycen unable to understand all the changes that will occur, it is necessary to span this out over several months and in several steps so that we are setting him up for success.
At his last conference a couple weeks ago, we began the discussion of needing a 1:1 aide with him all day in kindergarten. It really seems like this school is motivated to help Brycen as much as they can and the Education Consultant even said the words "we don't need to set him up to fail." We discussed that if we don't start things off right, that we may have to backtrack later and undo negative behaviors. We know that he will spend some time with the general education room and then also have a special education teacher to oversee his IEP and pull him out for specifics. He of course will continue with 1:1 speech therapy at school which is currently at 1 time per week, and we are hoping to add on OT at the school also next year (will need to redo an evaluation by AEA for that).
What really impresses us about this school is how much they prepare for these transitions! When we first moved here, they took the time to make up a binder of pictures of the classroom, teachers, entrance to the room, etc. On his first day, she already had a picture schedule on the wall and transition cards on a lancet around her neck. They didn't miss a beat with him transferring!
Once again, they are impressing us with the kindergarten preparation. He will be participating in kindergarten round-up next Friday from 9a-2p and they know it will be such a change for him, so they are assigning him a 1:1 for that day. He currently does not have an aide in the classroom, though there are two aides for other children. One of those aides is being pulled to be with Brycen so that he is familiar with them. They are also asking the kindergarten teacher he is assigned to for that day to come down and visit with him a couple times before that day. In addition to that, kindergarten means he will no longer be eating meals in the classroom and will be going through the lunchline and eating in the cafeteria. In attempts to help him with doing this next Friday (and for the future), today they started taking him down to the cafeteria for lunch. The teacher wrote me a note that said when they got to the door, he became fussy but the aide that was with him was able to get him to at least go in and get a tray. She said they will continue to work on this each day leading up to next Friday to hopefully improve each step.
I know eating in the cafeteria will be a huge change, as well as very stimulating to him with the noise, smells, distractions, etc. I am so proud that he was able to take that first step today! He is adjusting so well to changes lately and is showing us every day how hard he works. It seems like not too long ago all I could think about were the negatives in his behavior. When I read back to those first few months of blog entries, I can't believe the progress he has made and all of the opportunities we have taken on to help him. Just the last few months by themselves have been huge!!
Thanks again for your support and I'll be sure to update soon with pictures of Brycen and his trial communication device. He's already used it twice since coming home from school to show me what he wanted to do. I love the smile and excitement on his face when he hears it say the words back to him!